The case against a bakery in Northern Ireland which refused to bake a cake with a pro-same sex marriage message will be heard at the end of March.
Ashers Bakery, in Newtownabbey, was issued with legal proceedings after the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland contended that the business, despite being founded and run by a Christian family, had no right to refuse a request from a customer for a cake bearing an image of Sesame Street characters Ernie and Bert alongside the message ‘Support gay marriage’. The Equality Commission decided last November to take the case to court, resulting in a listing for the case this March 26 and 27.
Ashers has been backed in its stance by the Christian Institute, which has launched a fundraising campaign towards assisting the bakery to fight the legal action.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has also lent its support to Ashers, with members of the party launching a petition and one party member, Paul Givans, tabling a motion before the North’s Assembly to have conscience enshrined in equality legislation, something which gay rights advocates have strongly opposed.
As part of the DUP’s petition, the party notes that “Asher’s Bakery are not guilty of discrimination, they have not refused to sell their products to anybody on the basis of their sexual orientation nor have discriminated in any other way”.
“We believe that businesses should have the freedom to decide what message they promote and what messages they do not promote. This is an essential choice in a free society and we believe that the action by the Equality Commission is anti-democratic, is discriminatory and is an abuse of public funds.”